The British men’s coach, Soren Gran, has raised the temperature ahead of Friday’s gold-medal curling match by accusing opponents Canada of going against the spirit of the sport with their aggressive, supercharged playing style.

The Canadian quartet, skipped by Brad Jacobs, have been labelled the ‘Buff Boys’ because of the long hours they spend pumping iron in the gym, and they proclaim on their official website that “we are no longer curlers, we are athletes”.

One former member of the squad, alternate player Matt Dumontelle, took the muscle-building even further by taking an anabolic steroid, for which he tested positive after last year’s World Championships and was given a two-year ban.

On the ice, the team’s brash antics have done little to endear them to the sport’s traditionalists.

Shots are routinely met with either fist-pumping celebrations or, when things go wrong, brushes being slammed down onto the ice in anger. Jacobs also has raised eyebrows by running down the ice in pursuit of his stones.

Their high-octane style is in total contrast to that of the British skip, David Murdoch, who has remained the epitome of calmness while navigating his team-mates through a nerve-shredding tiebreak against Norway and an equally tense semi-final against world champions Sweden to reach today’s final.

Gran, the former Swedish national coach whom Murdoch credits with turning round his playing career after he contemplated walking away from the sport three years ago, is in no doubt which kind of behaviour he prefers.

“The aggressive style we have seen from the Canadians here, that’s something I don’t like about the sport,” said Gran. “I don’t think it helps anyone. It doesn’t help the player and it doesn’t help his team-mates.

“I tell my guys to work a different way. If they miss a shot, they’ve got another 15 to play. You can’t be angry with the one you miss.”

Jacobs, who gained selection for Sochi along with his North Ontario team-mates after triumphing at the Canadian Championships without losing a single match, makes no apology for his team’s histrionics.

“I think what works well for us is that when we bring a lot of intensity out there,” he said on Thursday. “That’s our style. That’s the type of people we all are.”

Asked whether his behaviour was designed to intimidate his opponents, he replied: “You would have to ask other teams that. I don’t know whether we are bullies or intimidating. I really don’t know.”

Murdoch, who has been in sparkling form in recent matches and showed an iron nerve to deliver a last-stone wonder shot to defeat the Norwegians in the tiebreak match, is unlikely be too unnerved by the Canadians’ behaviour.

After Britain’s 6-5 triumph over Sweden on Wednesday, his three colleagues paid tribute to his calmness and for keeping the whole team on an even keel.

While Murdoch, 35, is competing in his third Games, his three team-mates – Michael Goodfellow, Scott Andrews and Greg Drummond – are making their Olympic debuts and none is older than 25.

“He’s a pretty cool guy on the ice,” said Drummond. “It probably does help that you’ve got a guy who’s got the last rock who’s pretty calm and collected and who just takes things in his stride. That probably does help the team. When you’re relaxed, you’re at your best.”

There is no doubt Britain will need to be at their best to defeat the highly-strung but brilliant Canadian rink, who lost only two matches in the round-robin series and brushed aside the Chinese with a 10-6 win in their semi-final.

But Jacobs and his men are also Olympic rookies, having only been on the international scene for the past year, and Murdoch will be looking to apply the pressure early on, even if that means a bit of shouting and brush-thumping from his opponents.

Gran said: “If I see the team we are playing against get aggressive and show anger, I think our guys should be happy because we’d have them exactly where we want them to be.”